


Found Family

by peppermintquartz



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), The Path (TV)
Genre: Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Mentor-Apprentice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-11
Updated: 2016-09-11
Packaged: 2018-08-14 12:15:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8013373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peppermintquartz/pseuds/peppermintquartz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cal Roberts woke up in a cold sweat. Again that deep voice, a rasp against his memory; he had lost count of how many times he had heard it in his sleep, and how many times he woke up like this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Found Family

_I will find you._

Cal Roberts woke up in a cold sweat. Again that deep voice, a rasp against his memory; he had lost count of how many times he had heard it in his sleep, and how many times he woke up like this.

It wasn't fear that had roused him, however.

It was a sense of _victory_ and _anticipation_.

It made no sense. No one had ever said that to him in waking life. They told him their troubles, confessed their weaknesses, asked him to guide them towards the light. No one promised him anything.

He believed he should know that voice like his own name, but for the life of him, he had no idea who that was and why he was seeking Cal.

It didn't matter. There was work to be done. There was always work to be done.

 

*****

 

_Kaecilius emerges into the crisp autumn air, with the desert summer's heat still clinging to his clothes.He shuts the portal with a wave of his hand and the world snaps back into its familiar form._

_His arrival has not gone unnoticed._

_A child gapes at him in wonder and awe. He is pitifully skinny, the child, with large blue eyes set in a thin face, and dark hair cropped short. The child is possibly three, or five; he is so undergrown that even Kaecilius can't tell._

“ _Can you speak?” Kaecilius asks._

_The child blinks at him. He points at the space where Kaecilius opened the door earlier._

_The two stare at each other. Kaecilius weighs his options before he smiles. It's clear he has not practiced this expression for some time. Carefully, he locates a busy bakery in Istanbul, and plucks a loaf of bread from where it is cooling, all without anyone noticing. The Ancient One will chide him for being soft to an uninitiated. He gives the loaf to the boy._

“ _Eat,” says Kaecilius._

_The child blinks at him, grasping the loaf too tightly, and then suddenly dives into devouring the treat. He gobbles so fast that Kaecilius fears he will choke, but he doesn't. When the boy finishes, he hugs Kaecilius' knee. The sorceror assumes it is a form of thanks, and pats the boy's head gingerly._

_Then someone shouts from the vicinity of the main street. “Cal! Calvin Roberts! You get the hell back here right now or I swear to god I will peel off your skin!”_

_The boy clings even harder to Kaecilius._

_Kaecilius pets his head awkwardly. “Your father?”_

_The child nods._ His name is Cal, _Kaecilius notes._ Cal Roberts.

_Then Cal's father turn into the alley. “Hey, who the fuck are you? Let go of my son!”_

“ _I am Kaecilius, and your son is not letting go of me.” The sorceror thinks for a second, and makes a decision. “Therefore I will take him.”_

 

*****

 

The new vegetable garden was not prospering. It was odd, considering that all the neighboring plots did just fine. Cal told Henry to use less compost, hoping that would solve the problem. With more and more people turning to the movement, every household had to have a viable kitchen garden.

“Cal!”

Cal turned around and brightened up. Sarah Lane jogged over to him and swept her hair back from her brow, looking worried.

“Cal, have you seen Hawk?”

“No, I haven't. Shouldn't he be in school?”

“I thought so, but Eddie said he didn't drive Hawk today. He thought I did. I called the school, they say he's not there.” The concern leaked through every syllable. Hawk was Sarah's favorite, Cal knew. Not even Eddie was as important to Sarah as her son. It was something she was working on, to love all her family equally, but a large part of her would always hold Hawk especially close.

Cal patted Sarah's shoulder. “I'm sure he's fine. Hawk's a responsible young man.”

“He's also a teen,” Sarah reminded Cal, as if he wasn't aware of it.

“Sarah, he'll be fine. He could be playing hooky. I know for a fact that you played truant a few times too.”

“It's not the same,” Sarah argued, and then deflated when she saw Cal's teasing smile. “Oh alright, it is the same. Kind of. But I'll raise a search party if he doesn't come home by sunset.”

“And I will join in that party myself.” Cal smiled warmly at her. She was beautiful and he wished he could have won her heart, but it wasn't meant to be. “Come on, the Bruns need you to reach out to their daughter. I'll catch up with you later once I sort out the housing for the newcomers.”

 

*****

 

_After locating a suitably remote place for the boy's home, Kaecilius begins tutoring the child. He finds Cal engaging and intensely focused._

_Cal is six years old. He drew his birthday cake in the dirt for Kaecilius when the sorceror asked. When Cal mimed blowing out the candles, Kaecilius felt a surge of compassion for the child. He should feel guilty for taking the boy away from his father, but Cal likes it here, in a small cottage that's always warm and has three goats to keep him company, and a miniature waterfall that rushes endlessly down one wall in the bathroom to disappear into the floor._

_He teaches Cal to speak again, in English, in Danish, in other languages Kaecilius has picked up. Cal absorbs knowledge like a sponge. He's too young to be initiated, but Kaecilius teaches him in secret. It keeps the loneliness at bay. But Kaecilius has his own tasks to see to, and he has much to learn as well. Therefore he secretly crafts a shielded passage between his room and the home where he has put Cal. At night, he and Cal lay on the bed, looking at the stars over the cottage. In the day, the passage is closed. If Kaecilius is studying, he brings the books to where Cal is, and reads while Cal practices his own reading. If the sorceror has an errand, he sets Cal a task to do, and by the time the task is done, Kaecilius has completed his errand too._

 

_*****_

 

Hawk didn't return. Sarah, now obviously worried, called up her friends and family to help look for him. Eddie was adamant that Hawk couldn't have gone far since he was on foot, but it had been a whole day already. Hawk could have got on a bus or even hitched a ride.

Cal doubted it. Hawk knew Sarah loved him the most, and he would never hurt his mother.

They were in the woods now, and Cal splintered off from the main group with his flashlight. He knew the woods like the back of his hand; so often he had come here to be surrounded by the heavy silence of growing trees. Hawk must be found. Sarah should never have to be unhappy.

 

*****

 

_The cottage is home to Cal for two years. The trees around it are tall and strong, and Cal delights in feeling their life pulsing deep in the trunks. He speaks well now, with unparellelled skill, and his hands are warm with hidden power._

_After Cal has regained his speech, Kaecilius begins teaching him magic. Cal is not talented in any way, but he tries. He tries to do what Kaecilius wants him to do, and every hard-won success is demonstrated to the sorceror with great pride and glee. On his part, Kaecilius is at peace within. He has Cal and he considers Cal his family, more than the Ancient One and his brothers-in-arms can ever be. Kaecilius knows that there are secrets that the Masters of the Mystic Arts keep to themselves. It rankles, or it used to rankle. Now he just wishes to watch Cal grow. While Cal may never become a master, he will be happy, and he will be loved. Never again the thin, scrawny child who would rather seek out a friendly stranger than return to his father._

_Kaecilius will see to that._

 

*****

 

Three hours later, Cal stumbled across Hawk, literally. The young man was curled up on himself, and groaned when Cal shook his shoulder.

“Hawk, your mother is worried sick,” Cal said. He shone his flashlight at Hawk's face and noted the mottled bruising along his jaw. “What happened? Who did this to you?”

“I don't-” Hawk winced. His face was streaked with tears and blood. “Please. Stop. I'm not... I don't know.”

Cal called Sarah.

They rushed Hawk to the hospital. A strange dread uncurled in Cal's belly as he watched the Lane family fret and pace around, waiting for news.

“I'm going back to where he was,” Cal told Eddie.

“The orderly said Hawk looked like he was mauled by a bear,” said Eddie.

“I'm sure it wasn't.” Cal jerked his chin at Sarah. “Stay with your wife. I'll bring along a gun, just in case.”

 

_*****_

 

_Two years is all the happiness and peace the universe will allow Kaecilius._

_He returns to the cottage one day, arms full of new books and good, healthy food for Cal, and is met with all his brothers and the Ancient One. Cal is held by Wong. His large eyes are full of fear. Kaecilius shakes his head and Cal bites his lip._

“ _You taught him magic,” the Ancient One says before Kaecilius can even speak. “We caught him trying to open an existing path to Kamar-Taj. That path was made by a skilled sorceror. It was shielded and led straight to your rooms, Kaecilius.”_

“ _His father would have abused him,” Kaecilius retorts._

“ _That does not make abducting a child acceptable. Furthermore, you taught him magic without my prior permission. He has not the talent!”_

_Kaecilius puts aside the books and the food. He takes a deep breath to control himself. “Cal is adept enough, and he applies his mind with focus far beyond his age. Teach him and you will see-”_

“ _I will not,” says the Ancient One. She is implacable. “And neither will anyone, not even you.”_

“ _Why do you deny him what he is willing to learn?” Kaecilius demands._

_The Ancient One raises her chin. “He is not one of us, and can never be. Mordo, escort Kaecilius back to Kamar-Taj.”_

“ _What of the child?” Wong asks._

_Kaecilius tenses._

“ _He cannot remember any of this. I will send him home personally.”_

“ _I don't want to go home!” Cal shouts. His young voice cuts like a knife into Kaecilius. “Let me stay with him. Let me stay with Kaecilius!”_

_The Ancient One frowns at Cal. “Your parents miss you, Calvin Roberts.”_

“ _I don't care! I hate them. I love Kaecilius. I want to stay with him!”_

“ _You turned him against his parents?” the Ancient One glares at Kaecilius. “To assuage your loneliness, you take a child from those who love him and keep him isolated? Kaecilius, you will face judgment from all the masters.” Light glimmers around her hand as she walks towards Cal._

_Kaecilius discerns her intentions a second before she touches the boy. “Cal! Cal, don't forget, do not forget-”_

_The Ancient One's power sinks into Cal's mind – a skill Kaecilius vows to learn and counter – and the boy screams as memory after memory is erased._

_Finally he sags in Wong's arms, a marionette cut from its strings. For a second Kaecilius fears that Cal is dead, but he sees the small chest rise and fall._

_Before Mordo can open the path to Kamar-Taj, Kaecilius breaks free and runs to Cal. He cups the boy's face and smooths his thumbs over Cal's cheeks, now filled out and no longer gaunt as he used to be._

“ _I will find you. I **will** find you.”_

 

_*****_

 

Cal felt that same prickle of triumph and anticipation run through him as he reached the spot where he found Hawk. He clicked off the safety and swallowed audibly.

“Show yourself,” he shouted. “I know you're here. What did you do to Hawk?”

“ _Is that his name?”_

That deep voice. That rasp.

Cal spun around and aimed the gun at a patch of darkness. “Who – who are you? What have you done to him?”

“ _Nothing. I merely let him go.”_

“What do you want?”

“ _I want what has been taken from me. I promised to find him. Where is he?”_

 

_*****_

 

“ _What have you done to Cal?” Kaecilius demands when he is brought before the Masters of the Mystic Arts._

“ _I erased you from his mind. You should not have been there in the first place.” The Ancient One tilts her head, arrogant in her certainty that she is doing the right thing. “He will not remember you. It is better for him to forget what you have done to him.”_

_Kaecilius cannot articulate the rage within. It boils and seethes as the other masters debate what is to be done about Kaecilius. He lets his fury transmute from fire to ice. He cannot take on all of them at once._

_But he swears to all that he is and all that he will become that he will tear them into pieces one day._

 

*****

 

“Who? Who are you looking for? Show yourself!” Cal shouted.

A man strode out from the shadow of the trees. He was broad across his chest and shoulders, and his hair was long, bound in a pony tail. And his eyes... it was like looking into the depths of space. The man moved like a lion towards his prey.

Cal should be terrified.

Instead, he felt warm and finally, _finally_ no longer alone.

The man studied him. His gaze softened. “I seek a boy who knows he has forgotten.”

The scent of warm bread filled Cal's nose. The sound of an endless waterfall, the feel of rough bark under his hands, that voice, reading in different languages...

_I will find you._

“I am Cal Roberts,” he said at last. “You've been looking for me.”

The man smiled. It appeared as though he was unused to the expression. “I have found you.”

 


End file.
